Tuesday, March 25, 2008

This is comedic, the Conservatives are now telling the grassroots what they can and cannot say. The most interesting development of the conservative movement in this country is that it has moved from the populism and promises of a more free Parliament of Preston Manning:

To the "all the Leader, all the time" approach of the Conservatives, whose fear factory tactics and intolerance for democratic policy debate now extends to the grassroots themselves. Harper has declared war on everything he can't control, from the Senate to provincial budgets, with this move, he has declared war on, and put a leash around, his own card-carrying supporters.

Hey Jim, as someone who grew up going to under-funded public schools under your watch, I want to remind you of just one thing:

You are currently the Minister responsible for creating hidden deficits from here:

Not here:

Although since you seem to be ardent on wanting the job you lost to such luminaries as Ernie Eves and John Tory, in my opinion you can be welcome to it, and add Dalton McGuinty to the list of people you've gotten beat by.

After Conservative Party of Canada President Don Plett gave his keynote speech at the recent meeting of the Mississauga South federal association and disappointed many by not specifying a nomination date, speculation about a possible "star" candidate waiting in the wings ramped up significantly.Mississauga South university student William Norman, originally from the City, speculated at his www.theliberalbag.blogspot.com/ site that Effie Triantafilopoulous might be in line for an appointment.To which Effie replied in an email: "I have not been approached by the party nor am I pursuing it. Just idle speculation."Well Effie, I'll openly admit it was idle speculation. Also I am laughing that my little blog has managed to have even a tiny effect on the politics of Mississauga South. Anyway, the other thing Stewart touches on in this blog posting is also of interest to Mississauga, specifically the ongoing adventures of the other Mississauga riding to have a floor crossing, Mississauga-Streetsville.

Yesterday, Crombie's spouse Brian — who was the co-chair of the highly-successful Mississauga summit late last year — was named as one of four senior officers at Mississauga's Biovail Corp. who are the subject of serious allegations of misrepresentation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Ontario Securities Commission.Crombie is the former chief financial officer at Biovail who has long worked with its founder Eugene Melnyk. The charges have not been proven, of course, and Crombie and Melnyk have both declared their innocence and vowed to fight the charges. Nonetheless, the timing for a political spouse simply could not be worse.Due to Melnyk's relationship with the Ottawa Senators, this incident has gotten quite a bit of press up in Ottawa, but I was unaware of Bonnie Crombie's husband's relationship. I ultimately don't think this will effect Crombie much. Khan himself both broke a law specifically related to our democracy, and subverted the will of the people of Mississauga-Streetsville by crossing the floor, while Bonnie herself is not directly involved in this, and is building herself up a nice profile within the community, in a city which is turning increasingly Liberal-safe. I'm still calling Mississauga Streetsville an easy Liberal pick-up.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

I just want to give a shout out to all the BC Liberals, particularly those who did work on the UBC campus, as a thanks for saving the ass of the party in V-Q. I've talked to people, both at party HQ, and from BC, and I know how hard the BC Young Liberals worked, and how much the senior party owes them. The Young Liberals need to use the vital role they played in the by-election as leverage for us moving forward as a more influential commission within the party.

John Stewart of the Mississauga News gives a pretty good summary of the MSCPC AGM the other day, and discusses some things I've mentioned in previous blogs:

President Don Plett of the Conservative Party, who was the special guest speaker at the agm, didn't make the announcement so many were anticipating.Instead he faced some pointed questions about why the five-and-waiting candidates in the race (Tom Simpson, Ryah Shadursky, Don Stephens, Hugh Arrison and Ted Opitz) must wait even longer for a date with destiny.

Hugh Brown, who is the campaign manager for Arrison, gently pointed out that the Liberal incumbent, Paul Szabo, is well-entrenched in the riding, has just received oodles of national face time as the chair of the Commons ethics committee looking into the Mulroney-Schreiber standoff, and is getting off to a nice head start.

...And, oh yes, Plett explained, Harper and the Conservatives are very interested in recruiting women and ethnic candidates, and even better if they come in one package.

...Plett took some umbrage at the suggestion that the fix is in, and pointed out that even a fresh, ethnically-pure, gender-correct superstar with a party-issue blue parachute would not be appointed because Mr. Harper is opposed to appointments.But, as one long-time Tory who attended last night's function said, "something really doesn't smell right here. Something's wrong."

I've long thought that Effie Triantafilopoulos, who would have likely gotten the provincial Conservative nomination had John Tory not appointed the floor-crossing Tim Peterson, might be a good shot to get appointed as the federal Conservative candidate, and I think Plett's comments, as well as the refusal to call a nomination date lend more credence to this. The appointment of Tory candidate Melissa Bhagat in Mississauga East-Cooksville shows that the Conservatives are definitely looking for female and ethnic candidates in the GTA West, although considering that riding is basically unwinnable for the Conservatives, as opposed to Mississauga South, which other than Oakville is really the only shot for the Conservatives in the region, it is unusual that the Conservatives would want to let Szabo get out to an unchallenged head-start, particularly at a time when his name-recognition has never been higher. I honestly thing Mississauga South Conservatives are being strung along by the central party, just another example of how fast Conservatives are to ignore residents of urban Ontario, even the party members themselves.

Friday, March 7, 2008

As someone who considers themselves extremely pro-choice, I am very disappointed that this bill even got this far, thanks to some socially conservative Liberals, including my very own Paul Szabo. (I don't know if he was actually there to vote on it, but he would have supported it) Between this and the censorship bill passing with the help of some Liberals, I think a lot of Young Liberals (who are very opposed to both bills) feel a little sold out.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

I think this: http://www.mississauga.com/article/11751 and http://www.mississauga.com/article/11711 can be seen as pretty linked to each other. The provincial Liberals give a ton of money to Hazel while she and the provincial government feuds with Jim Flaherty, giving Dalton another leg up in his back and forth, and the federal Conservatives make an announcement friendly to Eastern-European voters, of which Mississauga (and particularly Mississauga South) has a lot of. Eastern European voters (particularly Polish ones) are important voters for the Conservatives, as unlike many other immigrant communities, the Conservatives do have good support within the community. Interesting to see these come back to back.